That Was The Week That Was In Links - February 14, 2025
Some stuff I’ve consumed and items of note…
Maybe the biggest thing I’ve learned about Aaron in all this is that he’s kind of prissy about his body. When you read about his ill-fated tutelage under Favre, you get a clear sense of the contrast. Favre, whose own biography is called Gunslinger, lived hard. You could see it in his body, even back then. Aaron is tough too, that’s part of playing the game, but he also doesn’t drink, almost at all. Never has. He’s California sober. Favre was all-American in a different way: drinking, rasslin’, hunting, seeking out adrenaline highs. It makes sense that his second act included committing millions of dollars of welfare fraud. Other than being The Quarterback, Aaron is most famous for being publicly picky about what does and doesn’t go in his body. He’s the American Man not as adventurer but as worrier.
None of this was normal before 9/11 but today people accept it as a fact of life.
The security overkill on display at the Super Bowl was particularly ironic in the context of the Department of Government Efficiency’s campaign, which effectively saw the shutdown of the Department of Education this weekend. Meanwhile, the Marine Corps rehearsed and executed a Super Bowl flyover involving multiple Osprey aircraft. When I mocked this online I was again told this was all very normal because it’s a recruitment tool for the military. Never mind that the game is being held in a domed stadium, meaning the audience can’t even see the flyover. Nor could anyone see them outside. As one local New Orleans reporter told me, "They’ve been flying over every day for the last few days…[but] it’s raining and foggy here so you can barely see them."
Trump probably didn’t put much thought into why he saluted yesterday, nor what it meant, pointing even more to the fact that what was started after 9/11 has indeed become the new normal. That includes discouraging you from asking questions. Just shut up and salute.
- Maitreyi Anantharaman on what I’ve found to be a fascinating 1-on-1 tournament in the Unrivaled league. Most impressive is the stamina these matches take, even for professional athletes, and how its matchups are arbitrary like a combat video game from the 1990s and how one’s surface skills in a team game don’t necessarily benefit them when all by themselves.
- When I started this blog/newsletter thing, I was aware of the controversy at Substack regarding platforming genuinely bad people, but I also subscribe to several Substacks from good people who do good writing and who certainly don’t endorse those bad people or platforming them. Anyway, I’m obviously not writing on Substack, and this week Karim Zidan chronicles the emergence of neo-Nazi MMA clubs on there.
- I noted it earlier this week in regards to it proving that the anti-trans argument in women’s sports has never been about “protecting girls and women,” but the President of the TV decided that Title IX doesn’t apply to collegiate NIL money.
- Despite him spending the preceding days doing The Onion’s Marilyn Manson piece in real life, Fox TV is sorry that it aired an ad during the Super Bowl for Ye’s clothing line that directed viewers to a shirt bearing just a swastika.
- Sedona Prince, NCAA hoops star and activist, faces abuse claims from multiple women.
- Here are Calvin Johnson and Ricky Williams in a comedy video that trolls Roger Goodell’s dumb stance on NFL players and marijuana.
I am drowning
There is no sign of land
You are coming down with me
Hand in unlovable hand
And I hope you die
I hope we both die
❤️❤️❤️ Weekend.
